Install ffmpeg on AWS Linux AMI

# 

sudo su -

cd /usr/local/bin
mkdir ffmpeg

cd ffmpeg
wget https://www.johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg/old-releases/ffmpeg-4.2.1-amd64-static.tar.xz
tar xvf ffmpeg-4.2.1-amd64-static.tar.xz
mv ffmpeg-4.2.1-amd64-static/ffmpeg .

ln -s /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg/ffmpeg /usr/bin/ffmpeg
exit

I am following @RichardTMiles but getting following error while building my docker file for aws lambda. I see the filename is correct though.

Step 8/17 : RUN mkdir ffmpeg-release-amd64-static
 ---> Running in 83ef215b8ad1
Removing intermediate container 83ef215b8ad1
 ---> d99b1fe0ce57
Step 9/17 : RUN tar -xf ffmpeg-release-amd64-static.tar.xz --strip-components=1 -C ffmpeg-release-amd64-static
 ---> Running in 882c2087ead9
tar (child): xz: Cannot exec: No such file or directory
tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
The command '/bin/sh -c tar -xf ffmpeg-release-amd64-static.tar.xz --strip-components=1 -C ffmpeg-release-amd64-static' returned a non-zero code: 2

[Container] 2023/01/23 13:30:24 Command did not exit successfully docker build -t $IMAGE_REPO_NAME:$IMAGE_TAG . exit status 2

@akayalml Amazon Linux 2 doesn't have xz installed by default. You need to run yum install xz and tar -xf will work properly

Amazon Linux 2023 is out; one should upgrade as often as possible.

$ wget https://ffmpeg.org/releases/ffmpeg-snapshot.tar.bz2
$ tar -xjvf ffmpeg-snapshot.tar.bz2
$ cd ffmpeg
$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ ffmpeg -version

This worked for me in 2024, Amazon Linux 2

@Rudrabha your steps also work with AL2023, thanks!

I am using https://ffmpeg.org/releases/ffmpeg-7.0.tar.bz2 instead of the snapshot (which I believe is nightly?)

@Rudrabha Amazon Linux 2 is EOL and should not be used.

@RichardTMiles "Amazon Linux 2 end of support date (End of Life, or EOL) has been extended by two years from 2023-06-30 to 2025-06-30 to provide customers with ample time to migrate to the next version."

https://aws.amazon.com/amazon-linux-2/faqs/

Noted @stevebanik, thanks. I’ll reiterate that everyone should be upgrading regularly. Avoiding inevitably is a poor decision IMHO. Get the latest and greatest from the newest versions. Support will end, and if you wait until the last minute you will be left insecure. It is MUCH easier to upgrade immediately as new major releases happen. Jumping 2-3 major versions is generally not a good time.

Solution May 2024

Given that nobody wants to post their solution, I figured I will :)

.ebextensions/ffmpeg.config

sources:
  /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg: https://johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg/builds/ffmpeg-git-amd64-static.tar.xz

commands:
  01_link_ffmpeg:
    command: ln -sf /usr/local/bin/ffmpeg/ffmpeg*/ffmpeg /usr/bin/ffmpeg

My initial attempt was to only use Linux commands like wget and tar to download and extract the archive. However, running tar command would froze machine each time I ran it. The above works though without any issues.

@VladimirMikulic pretty cool, however this solution still relies on the remote server. I was in a situation where a public server for some package went down couple of times, disrupting deployments. For more "sensitive" projects I'd recommend periodically caching the file on your S3 bucket and using this solution:

commands:
  install_ffmpeg:
    command: |
      if [ ! -e /usr/bin/ffmpeg ]
      then
        aws s3 cp s3://YOUR_BUCKET/ffmpeg-release-amd64-static.tar.xz ffmpeg-release-amd64-static.tar.xz
        mkdir -p /usr/local
        tar xf ffmpeg-release-amd64-static.tar.xz -C /usr/local
        ln -sf /usr/local/ffmpeg-6.0-amd64-static/ffmpeg /usr/bin/ffmpeg
        ln -sf /usr/local/ffmpeg-6.0-amd64-static/ffprobe /usr/bin/ffprobe
      fi

You still have to download and upload the release file to S3, but it shouldn't be a big deal if you do it 2-3 times a year or have another CI/CD task to do it for you once a week.

@januszm thanks for the code snippet but tar is not an option for me since it frozes the machine unfortunately :)

I followed this medium post for install ffmpeg installation in Amazon Linux.
Link: Click here for link

@rajaduraicloud hey it’s better form to post what specifically was needed that worked for you, with a delta of what was given above. Links can changes, sites can go down, but a real comment with real code is written to last. I personally am not seeing any difference in the medium article and the code suggested above?